Frozen Flamingos...

You can take the boy out of Florida, but its sure another thing to take Florida out of the boy... I spent most my life in the sun drenched state of Florida soaking up the heat and hanging out on the beach. Inundated with tourist kitsch at every turn, I absorbed and incorporated these cheap mementos into my repertoire of kitsch appreciation. Knick-knacks in every shape and form inhabit our daily lives so thoroughly that they seep into important and/or personally, valuable places inside our heads and hearts. Upon great research, I have found it is difficult to ignore the fact that kitsch is a gold mine of reference... personal and shared memory...human sentiment...nostalgia theories...how and why value is placed.
So,being a connoisseur of kitsch I decided to photographically visit my collection of plastic pink flamingos that populate my deck, potted plants and flower beds around my yard. Also, being it is the dead of winter here in PA, I thought it would be fun to see how they were weathering the bitter cold and snow....

Enjoy this homage to Florida and better weather...a parade of pink, plastic, frozen, flamingos patiently waiting for the thaw.

PS...GO STEELERS!

Got Keramiekon...

I got some good news the other day that I would like to blab about...my piece, Got Milk Rock Machine got into an international exhibition in Croatia called "Ceramica Multiplex" or "Keramiekon" or...
"THE INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF POSTMODERN CERAMICS 2009 - "The exhibition CERAMICA MULTIPLEX"...with a possible subtitle, "Nature as Adventure"...ok, its something like that...I think I am missing something in translation but anyways there are a bunch of countries participating in this event..."The greatest and most important ceramic manifestation in Croatia will take place from April 18 till May 17 2009 in the City Museum of Varazdin and other places in the town.It will be held under the patronage of the Croatian Ministry of Culture and the Varazdin City Council"...uh huh, uh huh...straight from their website...anyways I am one of 14 Americans involved, maybe only 15 applied to be in, I don't know...Funny thing is that a colleague, the ceramics professor, Kevin Turner, here at IUP also got two of his pieces juried into the show...go figure, 14 people out of this entire country and one works with me.

I am happy this piece is getting some love. I made this piece a year or so back and it did not fit into the body of work I was producing at the time, but I still liked it and felt it had some strange merit to it...it fits into my current obsession of nature/synthetic...of man's manipulation of the landscape and its replacement with objects from our interior life. How realities are formed around kitsch objects as well as an exploration of materials and surfaces.

So here are 2 more shots of Got Milk Rock Machine...this piece is comprised of two parts, both are mid range stoneware...hand built and thrown parts...translucent green glaze, gumball like surface-opaque white, commercial decals and black,rubbery tool dip... about 12"x10"x8".

Toot Toot...

Landscape #1: Tubors and Corms...

Yes. Thank You.
January 9, 2009 - February 6, 2009
Opening Reception
January 16, 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
The Brew House Space 101 Gallery is located
at the corner of 21st and Mary Street,
South Side, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15203.

An affirmation in a time of crisis.
Free market economics has triggered the onset of The Great Depression 2.0. The planet is getting so hot you could light a cigarette just by holding it outside your car window. The Large Hadron Collideris on the verge of creating a Black Hole that could swallow up the Earth. As we dive headlong into the Apocalypse, let's take a moment to breathe, relax and engage in contemporary Art!

...and that gentle readers is the curator's statement for this show...I am happy to be included in this very promising exhibition of wildly diverse and edgy art works. I feel like I am in good company here...colleagues and others whom I think highly of are included in this show. Pittsburgh based artist, Tom Estlack, put the whole thing together and has been great about communicating all the details via emails. The space is very Pittsburgh, it is an actual old brewery that has been reborn into gallery space, theatre space, and artist co-op studios up above. Heck, Estlack is even putting out a small catalog that will accompany the show.

I am happy to be showing brand spankin' new work...what I feel is the beginning of a series of "paintings". The "paintings" are all ceramic forms combined with materials like astro turf and flocking. The series is based on the concept of a landscape but swerves deeply into the realm of fictionalized space...space that is populated by elements related to the idea of a garden, all the while entangled in memory, both shared and personal...grandma's kitschy ceramics grow roots and take over the world.

I have posted a few crappy images I shot quickly after installing today...I promise I will have better images of this work next time...hey, if you are in the Pittsburgh area stop by and check out the show for yourself.

Gallery Hours
Wed, Thurs 6-9pm Saturdays 12-6pm By Appointment
Phone: 412-381-7767
http://imail.iup.edu/Redirect/www.brew-house.org/http://imail.iup.edu/Redirect/www.myspace.com/the_brew_housefindout@brew-house.orgNeed directions? Click for Google Map

Happiness is...

Happy New Year gentle reader! At the end of this 2008, I would like to take a moment and reflect on things that made me Happy. Yes...OK, this is sort of a top ten list that everybody and their brother does about this time of year, but mine are in no particular order and some are just kind of silly...you see...so anyways,that's my story and I'm sticking with it...here goes...

#10 Having two pieces accepted into the Tallahassee International Exhibition...great show with works from all mediums from people from all over! Nice catalog and great communication from them to me...unfortunately due to improper packing, one of my pieces was broken on the return shipment...still, I am happy about the show.

#9 Happiness was seeing my little 1st grader going to her new school in the public school big leagues and having a great first half of the year thanks to a dedicated teacher and bunches of nice people.

#8 Happiness was having a little gallery show with strange new pieces and selling well ...much to my surprise, people buy other things besides mugs!

#7 I usually gain a lot of enjoyment and happiness from music...I am a music freak...I love so many genres of music but tend to really listen in the present mostly...so here are 3 Records (that's right kiddies, RECORDS), that I really was into repeatedly throughout the year...

Bon Iver...a mellow, winter time, staying indoors while it snows outdoors kind of record. Recorded by one guy all alone in a cabin somewhere further north of me.

Lanhorne Slim...I am still digging this record...great in the studio to work with...this is his latest...I have a couple of the early records and I do like them, but I really like this one a lot! Great back up band that completes Slim's folky, bluegrass -rooted, indie rock nasel-y vocals. I admit to having had several private, spontaneous boogie moments with this one.

Stephan Malkmus and the Jicks...There is a bit of nostalgia here...I was a big Pavement(Malkmus's old band) fan from the 90's and I like Malkmus's wry lyrics and dry delivery. Here he doesn't disappoint and even manages to kick it up a notch with his rocking little band. It was a kick butt summer CD that took up residence in my car and would not leave!

#6 Happiness is talking about music!

#5 My summer gig as Kiln MASTER!...that was really the title...do you hear an echo when you say this title out loud too? Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, NY., lets say... it was interesting. The best thing about it was I met some really good people and that is why I stick it in this list of happinesses. Here are some shout outs...Ashley Dodge, Tim Keough, Caroline and Devan a.k.a. the "gallery girls", Paul, Kevin...Happy New Year to my seasonal "working with peeps"...visiting faculty were interesting and good people, some were more interesting than good people, but there were those that fell into both categories namely, Frank and Polly Martin, Adam Paulek Jeff Greenham, and Alec Karros.

#4 Happiness was getting into producing a lot of cups and mugs with successful surface compositions and interesting new forms in a range of temps and firings.

#3 Our big Disney trip with my parents was a huge blast! My daughter was blown away and we crammed in as much as possible in almost 4 days worth of house of mouse overload. We all had a great time and I reveled in the heavy nostalgia factor personally... for me it was a destination that was almost sacred as a kid growing up in Florida, and I loved returning to this mecca as a 42 year old seeing it with my 6 year old.

#2 Currently I am very pleased with myself in terms of mentally working out some new directions to explore in the studio this winter. I had a nice couple of "aha" moments that have helped to fully form these projects. More to come about this...One new piece is almost finished now and will be shown in a group exhibition in Pittsburgh with a number of colleagues from the IUP art department among others. The show titled, "Yes. Thank you." was curated by Tom Estlack and is in a cool space with a small catalog that will accompany the show to boot!

#1 and finally... Happiness is a warm puppy! Welcome Kaiser Maximus von Houser!

HAPPY NEW YEAR...

and I hope to see all of you and more in 09'!

Collection / Offering...

I offer up this post to you gentle reader...I recently received a disk full of images from my friends at I-Park...Agnes Miyuki has been diligently documenting my piece that I made as a site specific work while I was in residence there. It is titled Collection/Offering and consists of 41 shallow bowl forms ranging from 2 inches to 14 inches across. The collector bowl forms were laid to rest in the ground up to their lips, flush with the earth around them, on a small shaded hillside that accentuates a large green moss bed. They make a large sweeping curve around the moss with the largest of the forms at the bottom and slowly shrinking in size as the arc climbs the hill and seems to disappear in the woods.

I was fortunate enough to participate in this wonderful residency program there in the deep woods of East Haddam, Connecticut in September of 07'. The piece was a time marker of sorts for me as I was spending my 41st birthday there...my big day also falls on the first day of Autumn, the 22nd, so it seemed especially relevant for me to create this piece that would begin to collect the falling leaves...among other things.

The work is meant to be left in the ground...to be unobtrusive to the existing landscape...only to add sky blue polka dots to the hillside. Being there at I-Park, surrounded by 450 acres of woodsy beauty to walk around on, me and the other 5 residents were always picking up natural materials and bringing them back into our studios. I came up with the concept of Collection/Offering while there and quickly began to throw all my forms. The idea is that the natural surroundings helped to inspire us in different ways ...in a sense, offering up its beauty for us to make sense of in a variety of ways.

The forms collected leaves and debris which were then sort of showcased against the clean, bright blue, ceramic interiors. As the months went on and the seasons changed the piece changed...at times it disappeared completely covered in the snow...the moss died back then grew back... it grew around and over the collector forms, obscuring some completely with help from the fallen leaves and branches. Nature is in the process of taking back the space I encroached upon... returning the mossy hillside to the way it was and my footprint of this work becomes an artifact to be uncovered much, much later.

With a combination of my original images, Agnes' documentation through the seasons, and a digital sound recording of me force cooling all the pieces, I have the makings of a nice size installation piece. The sound element was recorded by fellow resident Sonja Hinrichsen ...it is a potter's nightmare piece...20 minutes of random Gamelon like pinging in clear digital technology.

It was hard to choose just a handful of images for this post...I am showing restraint in only posting these. It is still a work in progress with a lot of details to be worked out, that includes finding a place to show as well. Many thanks go out to Agnes at I-Park for her help with the seasonal documentation ...its not often I can leave a large site specific/time based piece in place and have it documented through out the months for over a year! That reminds me...I have got to get some summer residency applications out...until next time gentle reader...stay warm.

My other life...

After a recent back and forth of e-conversations with my friend down in North Carolina, Keith Phillips, I decided that I do in fact have something to post about...you see, I feel like I have not been getting in the studio like I should...not making work, period. Not making work...well, lets see, how can I put it...umm...it SUCKS. There is a number of reasons that contribute to my lack of productivity, but the biggest is the J-O-B. I honestly should not complain, times are tough and I am lucky to be working and especially lucky to be working within my field. I work as a half time Associate Professor teaching the 101 classes that nobody else wants to teach and I am also the Director for the art department's gallery. So you see, its not that bad...and in fact the gallery gig is pretty interesting. So I decided to post about the show that I am about to take down...Alastair Noble's installation...Babel / Random Access. I feel it is my job to provide a variety of interesting media in the gallery...something a little different, edgy, challenging... and challenging this exhibit was to many.

The piece was an installation that he configures based on the space that it will be shown in...the content of the work centers on a story by Jorge Luis Borges about a library that goes on and on forever and is housed in the tower of Babel. All of Mr. Noble's work is informed by literature and poetry...it seems to be what obsesses him. This piece consists of standing panels that are printed with fragmented text taken from the likes of Blake, Poe, and Mallarme...the configuration allowed the viewer to wander through this hexagonal labyrinth and read the broken bits of text. The panels opened to the viewer as if they were open books standing on end and the light created an interesting effect on the tight mesh fabric. The illuminated transparency of some of the panels created new layers of meaning and worked well in contrast to some that were opaque.

I enjoyed my time with Mr.Noble during the install and dragging him around to speak with all our grad students too...he was patient, easy going, and good to have a pint or two with. The work perplexed some who only know their art as hanging on a wall or sitting on top a pedestal, but that is why it is important to have work that is challenging to the norm. Art exists in so many forms these days and as I lecture to my students, its very difficult to put a neat definition after the question, "what is art?". So, you see gentle reader, what I have come to realize is that my own work takes many forms as well...I am not always in the studio at the wheel...sometimes the studio is just in my head... and I am sometimes pecking away at the computer working on images or working closely with other artists helping put together exhibitions...whatever I am doing I should understand that I am fortunate to be doing it in the arenas I am interested in...thanks to those who inspired this post...Keith's Uncle Gravy and also my buddy here JR Sherburne...until next time...hope your work is satisfying, no matter what your work is.

are you kidding me...

Snow in late October...it happened this past week...Tuesday and Wednesday before Halloween were a sign of things to come perhaps. It didn't last and did not stick much and by the afternoon on Wednesday...it was gone. But for a few days and nights it got real cold and whatever in the garden that had not been frosted, did not escape this cold snap. Although this last bit of weather was the killing blow to anything left in the garden, on my way to to the office this week, I was struck by the beauty of the effects of the freeze. Probably like any other potter out there, I have bowls and pots that litter my flower beds and deck. I'm always interested in what has collected in the bowls laying around...or better yet, what my daughter has deposited in the bowls. With all the precipitation and cold weather the contents in the bowls became moments of swirling and floating materials frozen into a still frame. With the sun bright and not too high above, the interiors started to melt and the bubbles became a cool element in the icy landscapes. Enjoy them...it was a great looking morning and the light was perfect...most of the snow had melted and that brief winter moment had passed...but I know its just a glimpse of the future.